''City Fun'' was a

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...

documenting the music scene in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

between 1977 and 1984 and sold up to 2000 copies per issue via gigs, music stores, and selected news agents across Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Leeds. The magazine was started by Andy Waide (Zero), Neil Hargreaves, Martin Heywood (X) and 'JC'. On the day it was decided to write & publish the first issue Andy Waide adopted the name Andy Zero and Martin Heywood became Martin X. The first edition was dedicated to The Distractions, and ''City Fun'' went on to document and inform the music scene in Manchester in the late 70's and early 80s. No one else at the time was writing about what was happening as it happened, and when others did write about Manchester music and culture it was from the outside not the inside. ''City Fun'' invited its readers to contribute articles and reviews and to tell people what was going on, or what they felt about life at the time. ''City Fun'' went through various stages of evolution, Series 1 was anarchic and inclusive trying to include the submissions from all contributors. Series 2 was more structured and selective, Neil, Martin and JC left the 'day to day' operations and a new

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...

team of Andy Zero,

Cath Carroll Cath Carroll (born 25 August 1960)Larkin, Colin (1997) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music'', Virgin Books, , pp. 96–7 is a British musician and music journalist. Career Carroll was born in Chipping Sodbury, England, but raised in Swa ...

,Larkin, Colin (1997) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music'', Virgin Books, , p. 96-7 Liz Naylor and Bob Dickenson became the core editors. Andy Zero left in 1982 and publication/editorship was continued by Liz, Cath and latterly (vol 3 which lasted 4 issues), Nigel Chatfield. During the beginning of Volume 2, ''City Fun'' operated from an office in Lower Broughton in the building where The Fall had rehearsal rooms. Later this was produced from Liz Naylor and Cath Carroll's flat in Hulme. Many people contributed articles including Ray Lowry (every edition of series 1 and 2), Tony Wilson, Mark E Smith, Claude Bessey, Steve Morrissey and many others. ''City Fun'' periodically promoted benefit concerts to top up the funds needed for publication, The Distractions,

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attend ...

, and The Fall all performed. "Stuff The Superstars" all day festival (which include The Distractions, The Fall, Joy Division, The Hamsters, the Frantic Elevators among the dozen bands) attracted about 2000 people and a later benefit "Dr Fun's Carnival Chance" at Manchester Polytechnic (also with The Fall) featured John Peel as DJ. The film ''No City Fun'', by Charles Salem, was based on a ''City Fun'' article by Liz Naylor. This was used as a basis for the film ''Factory Flick'' with music by Joy Division. This super 8 film was referenced in the Joy Division film of 2010. An online exhibition of scanned articles from ''City Fun'' was curated by Abigail Ward,

Dave Haslam Dave Haslam is a British writer, broadcaster and DJ who DJ'ed over 450 times at the Haçienda nightclub in Manchester and has since DJ'ed worldwide. He has written for the ''New Musical Express'', ''The Guardian'', the ''London Review of Book ...

and David Wilkinson and appears on the Manchester District Music Archive website. The permanent exhibition includes an introduction from Haslam.

References

1977 establishments in the United Kingdom 1984 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Music magazines published in the United Kingdom Fanzines Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1977 Magazines disestablished in 1984 Magazines published in Manchester {{music-mag-stub